


The Americans

by grimeysociety



Category: Captain America (Movies), Marvel Cinematic Universe, The Avengers (Marvel Movies), Thor (Movies)
Genre: Alternate Timelines, Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Alternate Universe - Time Travel, Angst with a Happy Ending, Best Friends, Bucky Barnes & Darcy Lewis Friendship, Canon Divergence - Avengers: Endgame (Movie), Canon Divergence - Avengers: Infinity War Part 1 (Movie), Crack, Dark!Darcy Lewis, Explicit Sexual Content, F/M, M/M, Multiverse, Non-Linear Narrative
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-08-12
Updated: 2020-08-21
Packaged: 2021-03-06 04:42:23
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 2
Words: 3,944
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25857619
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/grimeysociety/pseuds/grimeysociety
Summary: When Thanos snaps his fingers, half the universe is gone, including Steve Rogers. Given the impossible task of moving on, Bucky Barnes befriends Darcy Lewis. A chance encounter gives them and those left behind the opportunity to fix it all and bring back everyone who dusted. Meanwhile, across universes and timelines, trouble's been brewing, and at the root of it all are two legendary humans simply known as The Americans.
Relationships: Darcy Lewis/Steve Rogers, James "Bucky" Barnes & Darcy Lewis, James "Bucky" Barnes/Darcy Lewis, James "Bucky" Barnes/Steve Rogers
Comments: 44
Kudos: 68
Collections: Bucky Barnes Bingo 2020





	1. Part One: It's A Blue World

**Author's Note:**

> Let me preface this with a giant 'I'm petri-fucking-fied.' I need you to suspend your disbelief and trust me for a while as things come together. I'll do my best to make this the least confusing multiverse fic I can manage. **You read the tags right, it's a Stucky and a Wintershock fic, but they are from two different universes.** Our main Bucky is very gay and very in love with Steve, and will not be falling for his best friend Darcy. The other Bucky, however... Well, there will be many versions of different MCU characters. I'll try my best to explain everything in time. 
> 
> I wrote this mainly for Bucky Barnes Bingo 2020, specifically the squares C4: "Mulitverse Shenanigans", K4: "Bucky/Steve" & K5: "Time Travel". I also wrote this because we keep talking about being in 'the worst timeline'. That may be entirely possible, but wouldn't it be fun to just fucking... leave every once in a while?

_It's a blue world without you,_  
_It's a blue world alone;_  
_My days and nights, that once were filled with heaven,_  
_With you away, how empty they have grown!_  
**\- "It's A Blue World" by Four Freshman**

**Part One: It's A Blue World**

**1945**

**EARTH**

Army-issued sheets were never soft, not even if you were Captain America and got your own bunk and desk each time they made camp. Bucky wasn’t thinking about it as much now, since they weren’t wearing anything at all, legs tangled with Steve’s nose brushing his, the heat of their bodies enough. Steve was like a furnace those days, and Bucky could imagine their winter nights together being forever toasty now, if they managed to get through fall.

Bucky had lit a cigarette, taking a steady drag that he exhaled through the corner of his mouth, away from Steve. It was his habit, but he tended to do it outside, or in a fire escape, because of Steve’s lungs, but nowadays he was free to have a post-coital smoke in his lover’s arms, blissed out and lazy, flicking ash on the ground.

He knew the place stunk of sex so a cigarette was probably better to cover the smell. He even said it aloud one night and Steve gave him that little wry smirk of his, hovering above Bucky, his brow lifting.

“Really?” he murmured, capturing Bucky in another kiss.

Now, he was watching Bucky’s cheeks hallow out as he inhaled fluently, their eyes locking when Bucky let his hand fall away from his face, blowing smoke with a grin on his face.

“What,” he said, and Steve’s eyes drifted to the cigarette. “You won’t like it.”

“Lemme give it a try,” Steve replied, and he put Bucky’s fingers to his face, taking a drag.

He immediately coughed, and Bucky smiled at him, shaking his head.

“I told you…”

Steve made a face of genuine disgust, turning his face to cough into his shoulder.

“How can you _like_ that?”

Bucky sealed his lips over the cigarette where Steve’s mouth had been, shrugging. He turned, mashing it out in the tray on the floor, blowing the leftover smoke away.

“Nothing better first thing in the morning, with coffee,” he retorted. “Actually, I’d argue it improves the coffee a little.”

“I’d… believe that,” Steve admitted, and Bucky burst into another grin.

“See?”

He turned back, and Steve wrapped his arms around him, his hands brushing over his arms and chest, one falling further down, and Bucky’s brows lifted.

“You wanna go again?” Bucky murmured, and Steve’s lips brushed his.

“Wanna make a mess of you,” he whispered, and Bucky shivered, Steve’s hand wrapping around his half-hard cock, stroking him until he was full with slow squeezes.

Bucky hissed, kissing him hard, breaking apart to breathe, his hands curling into Steve’s hips.

“You mean, like you haven’t already?” he retorted, and he was rewarded with Steve cupping his balls, his eyes flashing with heat. “You’ll be lucky if I can fucking walk let alone _run_ tomorrow…”

He loved it. He loved that he lived to be fucked stupid by Steve, and he wished he didn’t have to keep it a secret. It was a damn shame, men like him not knowing what Steve could do to them, not that Bucky would ever share. By the way Steve turned him around, reaching for the Vaseline with his other hand, it was clear he wasn’t open to sharing Bucky’s ass either.

“Goddamn,” Bucky grunted, Steve’s hips brushing his bare ass as Bucky drew in a shuddering breath.

Steve peppered his face and neck with hot kisses as Bucky grew accustomed to the stretch again, his face burning when Steve began to rock steadily back and forth. He knew his cock was drooling, and he’d be embarrassed if he didn’t know it spurred Steve on, thrusting deeper as Bucky turned his face into the pillow.

Steve lasted longer, which only made Bucky feel wrung out like an old rag by the end of it, coming into Steve’s fist as the world evaporated around them. He panted, feeling Steve was close, shifting one of his hands to Steve’s hip, his fingers digging in.

“Don’t you dare pull out,” he hissed, and Steve started to laugh, breathless.

“Or what?”

Bucky managed to look at his face, pink and sweaty and so beautiful in the lamp light.

“I wouldn’t dream of it,” Steve whispered, before Bucky could come up with a decent threat.

He beared down and Bucky groaned, and it was crossing into the realm of too much, but it was exactly what he wanted, Steve losing control like this, splitting him open and marking him as his own.

Steve moaned, as Bucky whispered encouragements, feeling drunk and boneless.

“There you go, there you go…”

Steve went still, his forehead in the space between Bucky’s neck and shoulder, twitching deep inside him, before he slumped, panting with fresh sweat between their bodies.

Bucky redressed half an hour later, ready to leave for his own tent, his body aching in the best places, his heart swelling when Steve brushed a thumb over a cut on his cheek.

“I love you,” he whispered, and Bucky smiled.

“Love you, too,” he replied, kissing him deep and slow. He pulled back. “Punk.”

“Jerk,” Steve retorted, and Bucky backed out of there.

He couldn’t keep the smile off his face, not even in the middle of a war, because of that little guy.

-

**2018**

**EARTH**

Bucky was sure Thor had him on the ropes, his axe buried deep inside Thanos’ chest, and ever since that day Bucky didn’t know how he’d ever been that optimistic about anything.

“You should’ve gone for the _head_.”

The panic set in the second he snapped his fingers, the sound splitting the air like the crack of a bullet leaving the barrel of a gun. Bucky replied those moments over and over, what led up to him seeing Steve stumble, their eyes meeting.

“Bucky,” he breathed, and then Bucky watched as the person he loved the most turned to ash in front of him, disappearing into the wind.

Bucky couldn’t breathe. He couldn’t see, the shock taking over as his brain played catch up. He knew he wasn’t alone, but it didn’t matter.

He didn’t want to believe it, but his body was making him memorize it, as he was cut deep through his sternum, his battered heart beating faster and faster. It haunted him, the sound of his own heart, telling him he was still there, after Steve had vanished.

The last thing he ever said was his name.

He fell to his knees, his hands in the dirt where Steve had fallen.

-

**2007**

**ELSEWHERE**

“Are you going to that salad bar at lunch? My break’s at one, so you can pick up my order.”

Lisa shot her co-worker Angie a look, a common occurrence during their shifts. When Lisa started working at the bank, she thought she’d only meet people like her mom, who thought a job like this was a potential step-up in the world, if she played her cards right.

Lisa didn’t think so. It was a pretty boring job, with little pay-off. At least when she met Angie, they struck up a friendship immediately, and nothing had to be taken too seriously.

Especially not the asshole in the Armani suit that was tutting as he waited for Lisa to cash his check.

“Could we speed this along, girls?” he asked, and Lisa rose her brow at him.

She should buy emery boards to file her nails at work, just to piss off the customers. She was a good worker, but she wasn’t about to bust her balls to help rich people get their money faster. She didn’t understand these cash fellas anyway, it was obviously it was some type of laundering thing, so she wasn’t about to believe they warranted special treatment.

He was new, _new_ money. Lisa was only different to him by a few zeros. She was pretty sure his suit didn’t fit him. He could afford a tailor, but he couldn’t buy class, apparently.

“Sure thing, sir,” she chirruped. She turned away, rolling her eyes extravagantly to Angie.

She heard a deep rumbling, familiar clearing of someone’s throat, and Lisa turned her head toward the doorway of her boss’ Mr. Tivan office, seeing him standing there, watching her.

She was never allowed to refer to him by his given name, only his title, which she objected to because it sounded fake as hell. He was the one who’d definitely slept with Lisa’s mom back in the day, so it wasn’t like he was above her, either.

“Lisa, our client is waiting,” he said, a fake smile spreading on his face. “Remember that we always give them immaculate customer service.”

“Of course,” Lisa replied.

She tried to not feel humiliated by him, and she appreciated Angie minding her own business as she attended to her own customer. Lisa watched Tivan leave and glared after him, vowing some type of revenge. It didn’t take much for him to make a fool of himself, with that stutter. Half the time, he couldn’t get a sentence out without a few tries, and Lisa had to stop herself from smirking when it happened. She promised Angie when she inevitably took the manager job that they’d have longer lunch breaks and less bullshit. It was only fair. She huffed when she shelled out the cash for Armani Suit Asshole.

“Next,” she called, not looking up from her desk. Her bra strap was digging into her shoulder and she slipped a hand into her shirt to adjust it, not caring if some creep was staring down at her while she did it.

She was obviously not paid enough for this shit.

“Hi,” came a female voice, young and bright, vaguely ironic.

“How can I help you this morning, ma’am?” Lisa replied, her eyes finally shifting up, seeing a woman standing there wearing a long blue coat and brown fingerless gloves.

If Lisa had to guess, she was in her thirties and trying to get through some type of personal crisis. Her curly brown hair was in a high, messy ponytail, half of her scalp shaved, her eyeliner sharp but the rest of her makeup was lacking.

She wasn’t especially tall but her tits were massive beneath her dirty shirt, which Lisa had to appreciate even though she leaned forward and said:

“Can I speak to your manager?”

So it was going to be one of those bitches. Lisa bit back a sigh and rolled her chair back a couple feet, yelling out:

“Mister Tivan!”

There was a slam and Lisa turned her head back, seeing the woman step up onto the counter, reaching into her coat. Her boots were dirty and scuffed, leaving marks on the immaculate surface as the woman pulled herself up, standing over the plastic barrier above Lisa’s desk.

Tivan appeared and went still, putting up his hands when the woman pulled out what appeared to be a shotgun from deep within her coat, a smile spreading across her face.

“Do-do-do you h-have an-an…. _any_ idea who you’re stealing from?” Tivan managed to squeak, when she jumped over the barrier and into Lisa’s space, aiming her gun at him.

“That’s why I’m stealing from you, Collector,” she replied.


	2. Part Two: I am inevitable

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I know I said in the first chapter that the pairings were blah and blah but **I'm adding Shieldshock to the list** because I can do what I want. Thanks.

_Don't ever ask me where I go_  
_Last man who asked me had to go_  
**\- "Hardcore Days & Softcore Nights" by Aqueduct**

**Part Two: I am inevitable**

**2018**

**EARTH**

The Garden was lush. When Bucky walked through Wakanda for the first time, he thought he’d never see anything like it again. He also hadn’t thought he’d ever go into outer space. Everything was a series of firsts those days.

He was propelled by wrath. He could smell it in the air, along with the lingering florals as they walked through the grass.

He and Natasha were the last ones to enter the hut, when Thor swung his ax and cut off Thanos’ arm. The purple appendage slumped to the ground as Thanos screamed in agony, and Bucky felt nothing, not anything close to satisfaction when he heard him in pain. He knew no-one else did, by how there was no flinching among the group.

Rocket knelt to slowly roll Thanos’ arm over, revealing the Gauntlet, hallow as Bucky’s heart on the ground, the Stones missing. There was meant to be one for each digit. Bucky dreamt about it enough to remember.

“Oh, no,” Rocket murmured.

Bucky glanced at Natasha, their eyes meeting. What passed between them was acute grief, a new wave of it cresting. They’d come all that way, determined to end it there. Bucky had hoped, despite everything, he realized.

He looked at Thanos, finding his voice.

“Where are they?”

Thanos’ eyes were screwed up, while Carol had him in a choke hold she tightened, snarling in his ear:

_“Answer the question.”_

Thanos blinked back the room, looking around at them all like he was a spectacle and he was their audience.

“The universe required correction. After that, the Stones served no purpose beyond temptation.”

Bruce hurtled toward Thanos, roaring:

“YOU MURDERED TRILLIONS!”

Thanos fell to the floor, turning over to declare:

“You should be grateful!”

He was punched by Bruce for that, and beside Bucky, Natasha said, her voice thin:

“Where are the Stones?”

Thanos showed no fear:

“Gone. Reduced to atoms…”

Bucky felt his heart take such a swift dive he was nauseous from it, his vibranium arm balling into a fist. He thought about beating Thanos to death often enough, but he wasn’t sure if he’d reach him before someone else did the honors.

“You used them two days ago!” Bruce snapped, and Thanos stared right at Natasha, relishing in her horror.

“I used the Stones to destroy the Stones. It nearly killed me, but the work is done. It always will be,” he said, his eyes swinging to Bucky. “I am... _inevitable_.”

Rhodey spoke up finally, stammering.

“We have to pull this place apart. He-he has to be lying…”

Nebula stepped out of the shadows, her soft murmur resigned:

“My father is many things. A liar is not one of them.”

By the way she said it, and by the look on Thanos’ face, Bucky believed them both. He wanted to be sick, or scream. He was too shocked to move, hearing Natasha had begun to cry.

Thanos was staring at Nebula now, the expression on his burnt face changing.

“Ah. Thank you, daughter. Perhaps I treated you too harshly...”

All the while, no-one had been paying attention to Thor, whose chest was heaving. He brought Stormbreaker down with a swiftness so unexpected the whole hut seemed to lurch, and Thanos’ head was cleaved cleanly from his neck, the skull rolling to the side as the body leftover slumped backwards, Nebula’s face sprayed with blood.

Rocket was the first one to speak up:

“What did you do?”

Thor sounded far away, his mismatched eyes unblinking.

“I went for the head.”

-

**2016**

**ELSEWHERE**

It was a literal crash landing in a corn field. It was also the middle of the night, and inevitably there would be some kind of rabble roused. It was dead quiet, among the sounds of the ship idling in the deep tide of the corn swaying in the wind.

The woman that emerged winced as she jumped down, rolling her shoulders as she adjusted her dusty blue coat that was at least two sizes too big for her short frame. She immediately withdrew her shotgun at the sound of rustle to her left, her eyes darting toward the figures that appeared.

There was a tall man with dark blonde hair, a beard and several weapons strapped to his upper half. He had an impossibly trim waist, with an outline of a star on the chest of his armor. The woman beside him was short with long curly brown hair, carrying a gun in her tiny hand.

“Level with me,” the woman in the blue coat said, as new faces joined the couple.

Everyone looked weathered and hungry. Their eyes had an edge to them, a world-weary gaze that wasn’t enough to deter the stranger.

“Is David Bowie alive?” she asked, and the couple glanced at one another.

“David Bowie?” the younger woman repeated.

The crowd that gathered was gaping at the stranger. Some were murmuring aloud to one another that she must be a clone.

“Yeah. I can tell where I’ve landed by which state David Bowie’s in,” she muttered, and she didn’t seem surprised to be talking to a carbon copy of herself, give or take a few years.

The woman in the blue coat waited, sighed, and looked skyward.

“Okay. Lemme make this real simple –”

She cocked her gun, pointing it at the younger woman.

“You’re gonna tell me, or I shoot you in the head. Or the chest,” she said. “I’m not fussy.”

“He’s dead, he’s dead,” someone called out hastily, and the stranger gave a little smirk.

“Alright. That wasn’t so hard,” she said. She didn’t put the gun down, however, her eyes glancing over to the man whose jaw was clenched.

The stranger’s lips parted and she turned her head toward the property they could just make out in the moonlight, and she gave a groan.

“Fuck, did I land in the _zombie universe_?” she said, to no-one in particular.

The couple made two steps before she pointed her gun at them once more, lowering it to aim at the younger woman’s stomach.

“Don’t try anything, I know you’re pregnant,” she said. She looked at the man. “Right, Steve? You’re carving out a new life with each other, rebuilding after the apocalypse?”

“Who are you and what do you want?” Steve snapped, and the stranger’s eyes flashed with triumph.

He moved in front of the other woman and the stranger kept her gun raised, lifting her chin.

“Take me to the brains of this operation. He’s got something I need.”

“You didn’t answer my first question,” Steve said, his voice lower, warning her. “What are you? Because you look just like her.”

Her voice was quieter, calmer, and she smiled like a cat.

“I’m Darcy Lewis. I’m just not yours. I’m your buddy Bucky’s.”

“Bucky’s dead,” Steve said, and there was real hurt in his eyes.

“So’s mine,” Darcy in the blue coat said. “But not for long. Not if I get what I came to this universe for. And you know I’m not lying.”

Steve went silent, his jaw clenching again, his hands balling into fists.

“You can smell him on my coat,” she added. “Because you know this was his once. Back in 2018.”

“It’s 2016,” said the younger Darcy, her head ducking out from behind Steve. “You’re saying you time traveled here?”

“I’m not gonna tell you my whole life story,” Darcy in the blue coat said. “And I have absolutely no issue with blasting your brains out if you don’t do as I say. I’ve done it before. You know I have.”

“What does she mean?” Steve murmured, looking down at his Darcy, their eyes meeting. “How would you know?”

-

**2023**

**EARTH**

The marimba tone rang out, cutting through the silence of the apartment. Bucky didn’t have to check the number to know who it was when he unlocked his phone, putting it to his ear as he kept his gaze on the ceiling.

“Hey.”

“Hey. Jesus.”

Darcy sounded out of breath, and Bucky rubbed his eyes, somewhat glad that she was interrupting his struggle to fall asleep.

“Another bad one, huh?”

“Yeah, it was fucking… _vivid_ , dude,” she replied, and Bucky could hear her running water in the sink on her end. She was filling her water glass. She took a sip before she spoke again. “My subconscious can suck a dick, it’s fucking evil.”

Bucky let out a soft snort. “What happened?”

“I robbed a bank, I think,” she began. “It’s sorta fuzzy but the shit that stuck out was how I could feel the weight of the shotgun in my hand when I was aiming it at this dude behind the counter, after I jumped it –”

“What’s your subconscious trying to tell you, then?” Bucky said, sitting up and throwing his blanket off his lower half.

He got up and walked out into the hallway, all the way to the kitchen. He flipped on the light and opened a cupboard to find a clean cup.

“That maybe I’m bored. But I’m not,” Darcy said. “I’m just…”

Bucky didn’t need her to explain. They all felt the same way. Exhausted and sick of the routine of it all. Every day they woke up and remembered five years ago. Some people had done better than others, but Bucky knew he wasn’t one of them.

“You want me to come over?” he asked.

He was an hour away at the most. Steve had left him everything in his will, so Bucky had lived in Brooklyn since Thanos died, after the world became irreparable.

“No, it’s okay. I might get back to sleep in a couple hours, you never know,” Darcy said.

It was an old lie, but a good one. They both knew sleep was elusive.

“Have you downloaded Tinder yet?” she added, and Bucky let out a chuckle, shaking his head.

He knew she’d changed the subject to cheer them both up, but he was going to wreck it just the same by being too honest as usual.

“And what? When I bring a guy back here, do I tell him it’s my dead boyfriend’s old place and I’m never fucking leaving?”

“Do you want _me_ to come over?” Darcy said, and he let out a sigh.

“Nah, sweetheart.”

He’d resisted her friendship at first. It was relatively easy. He didn’t have any guilt at first, because they’d all lost so much so fast. He was in no position to be polite toward strangers. He didn’t have the energy or the skill anymore. Grief had sharpened his introversion, but once he spent longer than a couple minutes ignoring her, he felt a deep connection like something he’d had with Becca a lifetime ago. It helped that Steve’s voice in his head began to argue with him.

_Why her?_

**_Because she cares about you, jerk. Because she showed up._ **

Darcy had arrived in the couple weeks after the Blip, as the media called it, banging her fist on the Avengers facility gates with all her belongings piled in an old station wagon she’d drove through several states to reach them. The woman was relentless in her helpfulness. She threatened she’d have to be removed by the police if they wanted to get rid of her.

She’d stood between him and Tony Stark. Bucky didn’t like thinking about that, how she without hesitation came to his rescue, not letting Stark cuss him out without remorse. Then Stark fainted anyway, and the memory was probably better off staying at the back of Bucky’s mind forever. He never enjoyed his memories anymore anyway. It was like pressing on a bruise, endlessly painful and yet still fascinating, examining everything that was wrong.

“Are you still gonna come by like you promised?” Darcy prompted, because he’d gone quiet, staring at the brick wall outside the kitchen window.

He’d forgotten to lower the blinds earlier. Bucky felt his eyes prickle.

“Yeah. Yeah, I promise,” he murmured.

He hung up before he got too swept up in the feeling of tears threatening to spill over. He blinked rapidly, sighing as he looked around the empty apartment.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> [my Tumblr](http://grimeysociety.tumblr.com/)


End file.
